Luis Suárez could not have anticipated how prophetic his words hours before
kick-off against Chelsea last Sunday would be.

“I’m very happy here and I want to see out my contract, though in football you never quite know what’s ahead,” said the Uruguayan. “In football things never turn out the way you plan.”

Those who know Suárez best on Merseyside know this sense of serenity has now evaporated, replaced by despair, discontent and contemplation of his future after being handed a 10-match ban depriving him of Premier League football until next September.

For Liverpool, especially manager Brendan Rodgers, diplomatic superpowers of persuasion are required to assure him the support and compassion of his club can override the sense of seclusion and persecution he is feeling from everyone else in English football.

Liverpool have valid cause for concern about the 26-year-old’s response to the judgment of the independent Regulatory Commission. To his benefit and detriment, Suárez is impulsive.

If a microphone was thrust under the nose of the striker at 3.01pm on Wednesday, just as the Football Association statement was released, there is a fear he would have been in the process of hunting his passport and packing his bags.

He is known to be distraught by the verdict, not because he in any way questions his guilt, but because his contrition and receptiveness to embracing all efforts to address his on-field issues has amounted to nothing.

Suárez feels the punishments for his indiscretions are unreasonably multiplied and his displays of ill discipline considered worthy of more polemics and regulatory commissions than his peers.

Instead of offering a means to assist Suárez avoiding further offences, Liverpool think the FA has bowed to hysterical pressure to issues a draconian penalty, appeasing those on the extremes rather than addressing a more fundamental issue of rehabilitation.

The problem for the player and his club is he has been here too often before, with Ajax, Uruguay and of course during the Patrice Evra affair.

The debris of that wretched incident has never been fully swept clear. It remains central to the repercussions this time around, cutting to the core of why Suárez — for all his admission of blame on Sunday — still feels persecuted by Wednesday’s ruling.

Within minutes of the final whistle against Chelsea, the Uruguayan recognised and accepted he had been wrong. He knew his conduct deserved punishment and condemnation and he knew he had to heed his club’s call to seek assistance to curb his most detrimental impulses.

He has been in constant dialogue with his club manager about how to resolve his on-field issues. Liverpool have been stressing how Suárez is completely receptive to their insistence he seeks psychological help.

Mention Evra to Suárez, however, and it is not remorse but a residual pain and sense of injustice that lingers. Suárez, no matter what those on the other side of the argument persist in saying, is adamant he neither intended to deliver, nor actually uttered an insult with racial connotations to the Manchester United defender. He will never accept the punishment was fair.

Shake your head in disbelief at what you consider pathological denial as much as you like, but that is how the player feels and has maintained in every private conversation with his manager and Liverpool’s support staff ever since. It is what he will tell Dr Steve Peters during his sessions with the psychiatrist.

It has been a consistent burden on him ever since he was suspended for eight games a year ago, so to discover he is now being banned for another 10 — effectively on the grounds his last offence and the subsequent warnings have been taken into consideration — is stretching him to breaking point. He may decide enough is enough.

Suárez not only feels his ban excessive, he believes the length of the suspension is based on his identity and his previous rather than the severity of the incident during which he bit the arm of Chelsea defender Branislav Ivanovic. He feels if it was anyone else, the penalty would be different.

The Jermain Defoe case in 2006 proves it. That is the only comparable incident of this nature and although the FA insist the disciplinary procedures are vastly different now, it is worth noting the Tottenham striker was called up to play for England in the immediate aftermath of biting Javier Mascherano.

It is not simply the laws that have changed, but the entire moral tone when it comes to assessing how vicious a player’s violent conduct is. There were certainly no observations from 10 Downing Street seven years ago.

So Liverpool face another period of stark introspection, hoping they can reassure their striker he does not need to escape this country to restore his reputation.

There have been disorderly queues forming to demand Suárez’s deportation since Sunday, but there will be no shortage of excess baggage handlers on continental Europe who would welcome him if he feels England will never forgive.

Juventus and Bayern Munich have long been touted as a destination, although Suárez has confided to some in the Liverpool dressing room in the past he is not particularly interested in playing in the Bundesliga and Serie A and only considered Barcelona or Real Madrid a realistic cause to leave Liverpool this summer.

That was before Sunday, however. An opportunistic buyer will move swiftly while Suárez's mind is muddled by the latest skirmish with authority.

Liverpool were certain Suárez had no wish to leave in the near future a few days ago, but with the release of another FA statement they can offer no such guarantees now.

Barcelona: From world-beaters to whipping boys, the Catalan giants will have to go back to the drawing board. Attack is just one area that needs reinforcing and the lively Suárez offers them fresh impetus.

Bayern Munich: Their midweek 4-0 demolition of Barcelona promises a new golden age for the German club. They have just spent £32 million on Dortmund’s Mario Götze and Suárez could be tempted by the prospect of working under a Spanish manager, Pep Guardiola.

Juventus: The Serie A leaders have been long-term admirers of the Liverpool forward but probably remain an outside bet.

Real Madrid: Uruguay-born Suárez is thought to be keen on playing in Spain. Would depend on whether Real hang on to Cristiano Ronaldo.